11.11.11

11.11.11

ARMISTICE DAY

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row

That mark our place, and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below

We are the dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow

Loved and were loved and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch;be yours to hold it high

If ye break faith with those who die

We shall not sleep. though poppies grow

in Flanders Fields

by John McCrae, May 1915

Inspiration for Flanders Fields

During the second battle of Ypres, a young Canadian, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, was killed on the 2 May 1915. He was serving in the same military command as his friend Major John McCrea. As the brigade doctor, McCrae was asked to conduct the funeral service for Helmer. It is believed that this poem was composed after the burial had taken place.

Armistice Day commemorates the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I, and Germany, at Compiegne, in France. in 1918

The cessation of hostilities ended on the Western Front at the "eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month.

In Our Family - We Remember

Private John Hopkins

The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment

Died 24 January 1919

Driver Frederick Arkwright

Royal Army Service Corps

Died 1 February 1945

Buried Schoonselhof Cemetery, Belgium